The Staging

So, as I run across the media sites and such that I read on a daily basis, I've come to realize something. There are a hell of a lot of movies that are in the development/production stage at the moment, plus another handful that are in the pre-development phase, a.k.a. the rumor mill has been working over time. It seems like Hollywood is on overdrive these days trying to suck a buck out of any writer or producer worth a damn. That's why I'm thankful for directors like Christopher Nolan and J. J. Abrams who take their time and produce awesome pieces of work rather than rush along three movies, one after another. Of course, this does work in the sense of Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson, but there are cases where doing this can ruin things, such as a certain Pirates series.

Exactly what does Hollywood have going on back stage? Well I've compiled a list of some interesting projects to keep your eye out for that are a year or two away (not in any particular order):

• The Dark Knight Rises
• Battleship
• Ouija
• Uncharted
• Gears of War
• Bioshock
• The Avengers
• Pride, Prejudice, and Zombies
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
• Bond 23
• Hood
• Cowboy Bebop
• Tron 3
• John Carter on Mars
• Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
• Men in Black 3
• Ghostbusters 3
• Die Hard 5
• Indiana Jones 5
• War Machine
• Iron Man 3
• Untitled Superman Reboot
• Untitled Spider-man Reboot
• Looper
• Red 2
• Zombieland 2
• Kick-Ass 2
• Star Trek 2
• The Bourne Legacy
• Top Gun 2

There are many more that I'm sure I don't even know about and others I just decided not to list, but you get the picture. As you can see, there are plenty of sequels up there, which begs the question, do we need them? For some of them, like Star Trek 2 and Kick-Ass 2, I can definitely see good sequels being done. But then there are Mission: Impossible 4, Ghostbusters 3, and Indiana Jones 5. Do we really, really need these? Probably not. Will that stop me from seeing them? Absolutely not. I'm a Die Hard fan for most of these series, so I'll support them until they crash into the ground leaving me feeling like I should have jumped ship awhile ago. Speaking of ships, Battleship? Yes, based on the Milton Bradley game you know and love. And guess who's in it? Rihanna. No joke. To further Boggle your mind (yes, I did just say that) there's a Ouija movie too. I guess Hollywood figures that if they can turn a toy like G.I. Joe or Transformers into a movie, why can't they do the same with boardgames. It worked for Clue, right?

So what's your opinion? For me, there are definitely plenty of things on this list that I'm interested in, of course there is just as much that I'm worried about, like Uncharted and Tron 3. These days, the entertainment industry seems to want to squeeze every little ounce they can out of a series, sometimes it's good, like Battlestar Galactica, other times not so much, like Resident Evil. As movie goers and consumers, what do we do? I know we don't want to get caught backing the wrong horse, but sometimes you just have to accept the fact that not everything gets better when you stick a number after the title, or move it from the video game screen to the movie screen.

But seriously, I will line up to see Indy 5, Die Hard 5, and Ghostbusters 3, no matter what anyone else says.

Dream on.

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